Cisco Firepower 4100 Series vs SonicWall NSA Series

Likelihood to Recommend

When we are asked by local partners which security equipment we use we always recommend our Cisco security products. The Firepower firewall is no exception and we can easily recommend this to others who need a fast, secure, and well built system that integrates well with all your existing hardware and software.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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SonicWall NSA is an excellent mid-range firewall suitable for branch office locations that expect a lot of network traffic. The higher-end NSA can take the bandwidth requirements of thousands of users while using Deep Packet Inspection and Antivirus features. We currently have SonicWall NSA deployed in a high availability mode configuration, and amazingly can failover to the backup hardware without dropping VPN connections. SonicWall NSA series is not recommended for companies who integrate VPNs with Cisco devices, as I've had difficulties with the VPN staying up.

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Kenny McGarrity

IT Infrastructure Manager

Pace SupplyWholesale, 1001-5000 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Cisco Firepower 4100 Series

SonicWall NSA Series

Identification Technologies

Visualization Tools

Content Inspection

Policy-based Controls

Active Directory and LDAP

Firewall Management Console

Reporting and Logging

VPN

High Availability

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

Pros

Lots of expansion modules available for add-ons.
SFP ports are fast and plentiful.
Well designed hardware blends in with our other modern Cisco equipment.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Ease of configuration. Easy to add WAPs, etc.
Reliable.

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Mike Narumiya

President, Principal

Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees

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Cons

Initial install and configuration can be complex.
May need to learn the new interface if coming from ASA.
Buggy web interface can at time cause issues.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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The logging interface is voluminous and difficult to get quick and good information from.
SonicWall NSA is trying to mimic Palo Alto Network's investigative features but falls far behind.

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Kenny McGarrity

IT Infrastructure Manager

Pace SupplyWholesale, 1001-5000 employees

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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

SonicWall NSA Series 9.0

Based on 3 answers

Cost, ease of use and reliability after implementation. It's a great and easy product to use to meet the needs of smaller organizations that want a more "legitimate" setup without going overboard or spending Cisco money. Great product. Can be rack mounted or stand alone. VPN easy to setup and update. A great product to start with and grow with in a developing organization.

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Mike Narumiya

President, Principal

Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees

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Alternatives Considered

No answers on this topic

SonicWall NSA series interface is way better than either Watchguard or Checkpoint. Even though people want to dismiss SonicWall NSA, they have the advanced features of its competitors, but with the easy interface. With all things being equal, I consider Palo Alto Networks to be the most preferred enterprise firewall, with SonicWall NSA being second and the rest trailing far behind.

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Kenny McGarrity

IT Infrastructure Manager

Pace SupplyWholesale, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

Positive impact would be our increased security network wide.
Another positive would be the increased processing power, saving us time and [from] needing more equipment.
A negative impact would be the increased need for having to learn a new interface.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Saved money on implementation and administration staff.
Covered the sophisticated needs of many organizations.

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Mike Narumiya

President, Principal

Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Cisco Firepower 4100 Series Editions & Modules

Edition

Firepower 4100	50,000-250,000¹

per appliance

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

SonicWall NSA Series Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Cisco Firepower 4100 Series

SonicWall NSA Series

Cisco Firepower 4100 Series

SonicWall NSA Series